Priority Watch —

Canada remains on American “Priority Watch List” of IP miscreants

Just pass some US-style copyright law already!

On Monday, the United States Trade Representative published its annual "Special 301 Report," detailing the state of intellectual property rights around the world with American trading partners. Not surprisingly, Russia and China (which got over seven pages!) sat atop the list, but Argentina, India, and Canada were also given the honor of being on the "priority watch list."

Canada had the same distinction as part of last year’s report (and the one before that), largely over "long-awaited copyright legislation," and "whether it fully implements the WIPO Internet Treaties, and whether it fully addresses the challenges of piracy over the Internet. The United States also continues to urge Canada to strengthen its border enforcement efforts, including by providing customs officials with ex officio authority to take action against the importation, exportation, and transshipment of pirated or counterfeit goods."

Or, as the USTR puts it: "The United States continues to encourage India to promote a stable and predictable patent system that can nurture domestic innovation, including by resolving concerns with respect to the prohibition on patents for certain chemical forms absent a showing of increased efficacy."

In addition to being concerned with Indian pharmaceutical patents, Washington, DC is also "expressing concern" that Finnish law "denies adequate protection to many of the top-selling US pharmaceutical products currently on the Finnish market."

So who is Uncle Sam happy with? Malaysia, Korea, and, most notably, Spain—which recently passed the "Sinde Law," again, after pressure from the Feds.

64 Reader Comments

I do not support my Government and do not want Canadians to think ill of me.Boycott the MAFIAA Content and spend your money only on INDIE Content.My Government is corrupt and taking ridiculous amounts of money from large Corporations.

When will hollyfail learn that their IP is neither protected nor valuable. I saw the avengers, it's not fit to wipe my ass with. Yet it holds the international box office record (as in, all of recorded film history) and yet, piracy is still a problem to these misanthropes. If people continue to pay to see shit movies (anything in 3D would be a great example) then where's the problem?

We're on the verge of getting idiotic copyright laws because of that pressure from the US. I'm not sure why protecting the intellectual property of private companies should be as important to a nation as national security and far more important that personal rights, but it sure seems like that's how it's valued.

"The United States continues to encourage India to promote a stable and predictable patent system that can nurture domestic innovation, including by resolving concerns with respect to the prohibition on patents for certain chemical forms absent a showing of increased efficacy."

Unfortunately, Canada won't be on that list next year. There is a bill in committee stage called Bill C-22 that is aimed "at reducing online child pornography" but which, in reality, just opens up "legal" methods for law enforcement to track users' internet access - plus it makes ISP providers maintain web history logs for a given amount of time. The one good piece of news is that the bill was sent to committee after there was a massive backlash in the media over the true intent of the bill, and it is expected that the final bill will be a more water-downed version compared to the archaic one that was originally proposed (it looked like the Patriot Act for fighting copyright).

One other piece of good news, though, is that the Court system in Canada is a lot more powerful than the one in the US - there's a good chance that the legislation will be struck down in time due to judicial review.

So it goes from "trade partners" to "people downloading movies" in the blink of an eye. They can't even hold a straight face while they puke up this bullshit. It has nothing to do with trade and everything to do with locking up markets for US-based media industry interests.

Unfortunately, Canada won't be on that list next year. There is a bill in committee stage called Bill C-22 that is aimed "at reducing online child pornography" but which, in reality, just opens up "legal" methods for law enforcement to track users' internet access - plus it makes ISP providers maintain web history logs for a given amount of time. The one good piece of news is that the bill was sent to committee after there was a massive backlash in the media over the true intent of the bill, and it is expected that the final bill will be a more water-downed version compared to the archaic one that was originally proposed (it looked like the Patriot Act for fighting copyright).

One other piece of good news, though, is that the Court system in Canada is a lot more powerful than the one in the US - there's a good chance that the legislation will be struck down in time due to judicial review.

Too bad this legislation (which is unlikely to ever resurface) has nothing to do with piracy. Try again in an illegal wiretapping article.

Canada is proposing other anti-piracy measures and is supposedly on board with ACTA, but they're not seen as high priorities and our politicians don't generally seem too concerned with passing anything at the moment. It really only matters in the US where politicians are bought and paid for by Big Media.

Bof, it's only a matter of time. Other tory crap took precedence as Harper has only got his majority for a year. Rest assured, I would be very surprised if C-32 didn't become enacted before this year ends. The contrary would be unthinkable because - good or bad - the conservatives have proved to be true to their word in what they said they would do if elected without legislative shackles.

When will hollyfail learn that their IP is neither protected nor valuable. I saw the avengers, it's not fit to wipe my ass with. Yet it holds the international box office record (as in, all of recorded film history) and yet, piracy is still a problem to these misanthropes. If people continue to pay to see shit movies (anything in 3D would be a great example) then where's the problem?

I'm not a fan of MAFIAA, but subjective reasoning really gets you no where in an argument.

Just because you don't like a movie that got universal acclaim doesn't automatically make the movie suck.

With all the whining that comes out of Washington about this or that interest of their special lobby groups, (the interests that really aren't of much interest to these other nations or even would be a disservice to their constituents if pursued) I would dare to say that soon, maybe really soon - some of these countries will start saying: "So What?"

Not that I think IP legislation is in any way deffensible (I mean seriously, your education and culture contributes nothing to your ideas?), but protecting american media is extra insulting. How can you ban people from accessing content if you aren't willing to licence that content in Canada? I bet a lot fewer people would pirate TV shows etc in Canada if we even had the choice to pay for it, which usually we don't.

There were some interesting cables in the big diplomatic cable leak a couple of years ago about how the US was pushing for tougher Canadian IP laws, and how the Harper government was encouraging the pressure in order to help them push through the IP bills, even though the public was almost universally opposed. Michael Geist had a lot of information about it.

The problem is that it's a slippery slope. Once we cave to their completely insane copyright fantasies, they'll be telling us we don't beat innocent protesters enough. Next they'll tell us we're too soft on terrorists, and that we should suspend our constitution too.

So it goes from "trade partners" to "people downloading movies" in the blink of an eye. They can't even hold a straight face while they puke up this bullshit. It has nothing to do with trade and everything to do with locking up markets for US-based media industry interests.

Up here we still have courts and laws that do this admittedly archaic but quite wonderful thing called justice. But your American corporations have recently bought our government too. Now, they're laughable goons compared to the real hard mafia thugs running your country, and they really only just fully took over. So maybe if you guys can kill the MAFIAA, our goons will give up before we get completely corrupted too. Hey, it's worth dreaming right? And you guys need to clean up anyways.

I guess I worry that if Canada sinks as low as the US has, there will be nowhere left on the continent where the public won't have to take society back by force (seeing as how actual legal justice has been utterly perverted, and no longer operates on behalf of the public, who therefore have no other recourse but to become our own police).

Speaking in generalities:The U.S. and other western nations have moved into the "Age of Information". It is erroneous from the start to suppose that information (media, music, intellectual creativity, propitiatory data, what-have-you) could ever supplant manufactured or agricultural products as revenue generating export. But that is the daydream we live in. So a creator or a group of creators (as in a company) can not prosper nor can the tax happy government prosper when pirates and thieves in other countries clone and steal our only export (pitiful as it may be).

Russia will never care about Hollywood IP. Several generations grew up with the concept of sharing is norm, nothing will change that. The vast majority of Russian artists release their hits on Youtube willingly, in HQ/HD the first day new songs are out.New episodes of Game of Thrones are all over Rusnet (live streaming, donwloads, what have you, and this is just a simpel Google search) within a day of their release, fully translated, and that is just one of many. Hollywood will never win.

Russia will never care about Hollywood IP. Several generations grew up with the concept of sharing is norm, nothing will change that. The vast majority of Russian artists release their hits on Youtube willingly, in HQ/HD the first day new songs are out.New episodes of Game of Thrones are all over Rusnet (live streaming, donwloads, what have you, and this is just a simpel Google search) within a day of their release, fully translated, and that is just one of many. Hollywood will never win.

Korean stuff also gets put on the web almost immediately after being aired. That said, Korean celeb tends to make FAR more money doing commercials, TV appearances and concerts compared to record sales anyway. (Heck, it's a country where profession Starcraft players gets commercial gigs...)

We have a government that: sprang into action to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that committed felonies by spying on Americans; fell over itself in its eagerness to shield banks from fraudulent foreclosures that literally robbed people of their homes; failed to prosecute any significant players responsible for a financial crisis that impoverished millions, instead showering their firms with money, enabling malefactors to receive record bonuses; and scapegoated ordinary U.S. soldiers for torture while protecting the architects of the policy.

The U.S. government seems intent on jettisoning the rule of law and running roughshod over American citizens. I certainly don't mean to let Canadian politicians off the hook, but when the Prime Minister's Office tells the minister responsible for copyright "we don't care what you do, as long as the U.S. is satisfied" it's pretty clear that the U.S. government's disdain for democracy is being exported here too.

On its own terms, copyright seems less important than the issues I mentioned above. But the subversion of the rule of law that it entails is no less harmful. The question we need to start asking is whether law-making that deliberately circumvents and subverts democratic processes is legitimate: whether we have any ethical duty to respect laws made by and for elites who exempt themselves from judgement. We should respect and reward artists and each other. It's not clear we should do the same for this law and the elites who own it.

When there's no one complaining U.S. will keep on pushing its limit until it hits its resistance. It won't happens any time soon if on one come up and say something. Anyway you don't blame this on U.S. blame it on yourself for not acting.

Speaking in generalities:The U.S. and other western nations have moved into the "Age of Information". It is erroneous from the start to suppose that information (media, music, intellectual creativity, propitiatory data, what-have-you) could ever supplant manufactured or agricultural products as revenue generating export. But that is the daydream we live in. So a creator or a group of creators (as in a company) can not prosper nor can the tax happy government prosper when pirates and thieves in other countries clone and steal our only export (pitiful as it may be).

This. Since the US has ceased to actually manufacture anything, and is rapidly phasing out original research and innovation, all it has LEFT is so-called IP - and the government knows it. Problem is, the IP economy has to have every single nation recognize it, and abide by it's rules, to prosper. So, the US government literally has no choice but to try to strong arm the world on this, not matter how foolish and heavy-handed they appear.

I would be shocked and angered if we were not in this list. If we are ever removed, it will mean something bad has happened in our government. Hopefully the Supreme Court will strike down any such idiocy.

Plus Harper should know that any such bill will be a death knell for his chances of getting re-elected. Then again, re-election is probably not the plan. We'll see what job he holds a year after being ousted. In the media sector, perhaps?

Unfortunately, Canada won't be on that list next year. There is a bill in committee stage called Bill C-22 that is aimed "at reducing online child pornography" but which, in reality, just opens up "legal" methods for law enforcement to track users' internet access - plus it makes ISP providers maintain web history logs for a given amount of time...

Too bad this legislation (which is unlikely to ever resurface) has nothing to do with piracy. Try again in an illegal wiretapping article.

Canada is proposing other anti-piracy measures and is supposedly on board with ACTA, but they're not seen as high priorities and our politicians don't generally seem too concerned with passing anything at the moment. It really only matters in the US where politicians are bought and paid for by Big Media.

I beg to differ. Bill C-22 may not directly be related to copyright protection, but it does (or did) have very disconcerting wording regarding provisions to track people's internet access. If there's one thing you and I both know, is that one Bill can often be the groundwork for another one. C-22 was not about child protection (it was criticized for it), but it seemed to focus on ISPs being forced to hand over users' data without a warrant and without questions asked. So yeah, I think that very much relevant to this topic.